Latest Weather Blog

Coffee business to get new alley following months of phone calls, emails

Share:

Related Story

BATON ROUGE - A City-Parish maintained alley behind a Baton Rouge business has seen better days. The alley runs parallel to Government Street and runs between businesses and parking.

French Truck Coffee is one of those businesses. Owner and Founder Geoffrey Meeker says the bumpy road should have been taken care of long before he moved in.

"We get complaints daily about how bad the alley is," he said.

Meeker laid eyes on the Mid-City spot nearly two years ago. Plans were delayed due to the August 2016 flood, but the business officially opened in August 2017.

The alley is used by customers and delivery trucks that have to navigate through the deep potholes that are big enough to swallow a tire and collect dirt and rainwater. Plenty of customers have avoided the alley altogether and found parking elsewhere: on the street.

"They can't use the alley to get to our parking," said Meeker.

Multiple calls and emails to the City-Parish have been made, but Meeker says he has yet to see a fix.

"We kept getting lip service that things were going to get done and we took that information at face value and just nothing has happened," he said.

It prompted him to design a large sign he's nailed to his garbage shutter. The sign lists the City-Parish phone number and work order number. It asks people to call and complain about the alley's conditions. The bumpy alley has also brought Metro Councilman Matt Watson to visit from outside of his district.

"It's obviously in rough condition," said Watson.

He spent some time on the phone Tuesday inquiring about the alley with the Department of Public Works. DPW tells 2 On Your Side it'll fix the issue, next week.

"I'd like to get it to the point where people aren't worried about breaking their cars to get to my business," said Meeker.

The City-Parish says it's putting the alley repairs on a list for next week, but says it only has plans to fix the portion of the alley directly behind the business. The asphalt will be removed and replaced with limestone.